Clearing mines in Northeast will take six years - Scottish Expert

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 16:03 GMT]A scottish technical expert in the field of mine clearing, Mr. Deim, said that it will take at least six year to clear all landmines buried in the Northeast. He also said that the estimate of a total of one million landmines is too low and that he suspects the number to be much higher, according sources in Kilinochchi.

Mr. Deim added that the maps provided by the Sri Lanka security forces containing areas where the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) buried the landmines do not point to precise co-ordinates of landmine locations but simply indicate large patches of land where mines are likely to be buried.

"These maps are hardly adequate for speedy removal of mines. The imprecise maps maintained by the military will present a severe impediment to completing the mine clearing effort in the previously estimated time of one or two years," the Scottish expert added.